Cork Stopper Table by Hyeonil Jeong

The latest works of Korean product designer Hyeonil Jeong have distinctly playful personas and make use of oversized everyday items in their assembly. The NYC resident created this unique table, with a deceptively simple construction, that is both playful and minimalistic. It is composed of a single pane of glass accompanied by 4 plywood legs and at the centre of the table, a cork serves as a stopper securing the hooked ends of the legs in place around the glasses internal rim.

The designer demonstrates that the Cork Stopper table can be assembled in less than a minute and that no tools or hardware such as screws are required in its construction. The furniture piece can also be reassembled multiple times without structurally deteriorating, and its unique design presents a remarkably elegant yet fun solution to the conundrum of portable flat pack tables.

Whether down to material limitations in forming such tight bends, or Hyeonil Jeong’s personal taste, the layers of the plywood used for the legs run vertically and fail to take advantage of the material’s malleable properties. Instead, a super thick plywood sheet has been jigsawed to form the hooked legs, although this does mean that the contrasting colours of the alternating plywood layers are displayed more prominently.

Hyeonil Jeong’s other designs run in a similar vein to the Cork Stopper Table with fun vibes that incorporate blown up mundane objects to form their structures. The Tri-fold lamp shade for example makes use of three huge paper clips to hold a piece of paper in a 3D shape and his Self Introduce table humourously bears the dimensional measurements of the furniture piece on its surfaces.